A blog about technologies, science, books and other stuff, especially science fiction

Short fiction

The short story “Big Bang Larissa” by Cristian M. Teodorescu was published for the first time in 2014. It was translated from Romenian by Loredana Fratila Cristescu.

Larissa is twenty years and starts asking her mom questions about the nature and origin of money. Her mother doesn’t want to give her only ritual commandments and answers based on various rules and tries to explain how Accounting, Mint and other elements of Finance work but her daughter’s curiosity threatens to trigger a crisis.

The short story “Virtually Yours” by Nina Munteanu was published for the first time in 2016.

Vincent is a Corporation Overseer and is supposed to do his work anonymously checking the employees assigned to him remotely, using a V-set. This allows him to experience what carriers such as Jake, who have a special implant, are feeling through their senses. For Vincent the control job ends up as a virtual love affair with Katherine, Jake’s girlfriend.

The short story “The Way of Water” by Nina Munteanu was published for the first time in 2016.

Hilda goes to the public water tap but when at last it’s her turn, after an hour of waiting, her Water Card gets rejected. Hilda just has some sad memories of the past and above her mother’s stories when she explained how water was managed before climate change and before it became a Canada Corp’s property.

“The Way of Water” is set in a near future in which Canada has to deal with both climate and geo-political changes. The nation got involved in the USA decay when it was basically bought by China. The story is focused on the problem of water, which has become private property of a company called Canada Corp so citizens must pay its use and can’t pick it up, even rainwater.

“The Way of Water” is a story of the kind you hope is science fiction but you fear is not. Those who think that Nina Munteanu’s future vision is exaggerated can read her essay “The Story of Water”, which contains a number of ideas that inspired the short story.

The short story “A Short Encyclopedia of Lunar Seas” by Ekaterina Sedia was published for the first time in 2012.

This guide to the lunar seas allows to appreciate its inhabitants and its connections with Russia. The lunar seas are full of life and magic, marked by the stories of the people living and working in one of them but also of those of the people who go to visit them for various reasons.

The story “Citizen Komarova Finds Love” by Ekaterina Sedia was published for the first time in 2009.

Countess Komarova, the only survivor of her family, lost everything she owned during the revolution, when the red cavalry appropriated her mansion. Now just Citizen Komarova, she survives working as a clerk in a consignment shop in the suburbs of the small town of N. living in a room above the shop. A strange customer is the only distraction from boredom and the memories of her past.